246 SPINNING OF JUTE. 
submitted to the members of the Flax Committee, the following 
favorable opinion has been expressed on it: 
Mr. Hodgkinson.—This is the finest specimen of Jute I 
have ever seen—being bright, clean, strong, and of excellent 
staple ; the root ends particularly well freed of the hard woody 
bark which characterises bazar Jute, and deteriorates its 
value. 
I should say that £16 to £17 could be obtained for Jute of 
similar quality at home, being fully £2 per ton more than the 
ordinary descriptions now fetch. 
Mr. Fergusson.—It is very good Jute, worth £3 to £4 per 
ton more than what is generally shipped. 
Dr. Buchanan and Ram Comul Sen describe the Pat as 
spun by two kinds of spindles, the Takur and Dhara. A 
bunch of the raw material is hung up in every farmer’s house, 
or to the protruding stick of a thatched roof, and every one who 
has leisure, forms with one or other of these spindles, some 
coarse packthread (sutoli), of which ropes are twisted for the 
use of the farm. The Dhara is a reel, on which a thread when 
sufficiently twisted, is wound up. ‘The Takur is a kind of 
spindle which is turned upon the thigh or the sole of the foot. 
Ghurghurea is a third kind of spinning machine. It is only 
the lower Hindu castes, called Rajbongsi, Konget, and Polya, 
that form this packthread for being woven into sackcloth, and 
spin a finer thread from which the cloth called Megili, or 
Megila, is woven. By far the greater part of the cloth that 
is used dyed, receives the colour in the state of thread. 
The coarse cloth, called Megili, is woven by the women of 
the lower class of people. Most families have a loom, and the 
people, especially the women in the afternoons, work a little 
occasionally, and this serves to clothe the family. The pieces 
consist of three or four narrow cloths sewed together, some four 
or five cubits long, and from two to three cubits wide, and 
are worth from two to eight annas each. Some have red and 
black borders. It is said to be more durable than cloth made 
of cotton. 
